Weaning Breastfed Baby

If she's not ready to wean, then she's not ready. If you don't mind, I wouldn't worry about it, but I'd teach her manners. My DD learned not to grab at my shirt in public, for example. Many people also teach their children a code word or nickname (my DD signed so we used the signs for Mommy and Milk together). I have found with my DD that a little maturity from her and a little encouragement from me has fairly gracefully brought us to just a few minutes at night and no longer every night. As she gets older, ask her if she wants a cuddle, a book, a snack, a drink...she could be seeking a lot of things from that time with you.

She is telling you what she wants... to wean her would go against her expressed wishes. This would be a great time to teach her nursing manners - such as ASKING to nurse, instead of pulling your shirt up

- Learning the term "Wait", incase a specific time doesn't work for you - but always follow thru with the promise of in a minute.

etc...
Most children will not self wean before 2 years old. It's such a short period of time, time you will never get back. Antibodies in breastmilk and love/comfort from mommy while nursing never have an expiration date.

Every child is different and I can tell you that they won't all wean themselves. My son would probably never have weaned himself. I finally weaned him when he turned four. My daughter is still nursing at two-and-a-half and actually became more and more attached to the "boobies" as she got older. I have been more forceful with not letting her nurse throughout the day because I would like to wean her sooner. She also sucks her thumb, so it is a little easier for her to self-soothe. But my experience has been that you have to take control and be strict about not letting them on the boob throughout the day, if you want to work toward weaning. I am always amazed to hear that some children wean themselves at an early age, because that has obviously not been my experience.

M.,
I would just direct her to anther form of comfort in the day time, keep the nursing's to the nights and mornings. Then when she and you are ready to stop, just drop the one feeding that is not her favorite. Usually kids will love the morning and be fine with skipping the night, or visa versa. If your child likes food, the morning one will be easier to drop cause you can just get them up and feed them. if you child's love language is touch, then they might be fine with having a book snuggle time and then bed, with out nursing, especially if you do your routine for naps the same every day, then you can just extend that to bed time too.
Good luck!
E.

My daughter was the same way and didn't really want to give up those last few nursings. I ended up weaning her the summer before she went to preschool so she was an older two year old by the time we finished. What I ended up doing to wean her (which worked really well for us) was to set a timer with each nursing -- buzzer goes off, feeding is over. Each few days I would decrease the amount of time on the clock. We did it very gradually so it was fine for me in terms of not feeling full or engorged and it worked well for her too. We set a date on the calendar for our last day of nursing and talked up what a big girl she was and how really only babies nurse and she was so big and could do all these other big-girl things so she didn't really need nursing anymore. We did keep having snuggle time (sitting on my lap reading or singing or something) around the times she used to nurse so there wasn't a huge transition, just no more mama milk involved! Because she was older and could understand more this worked for us. If you are trying to wean your daughter now when she just turned one I'm not sure this will work for you. Many kids do wean themselves but I got impatient and didn't want her to go to preschool still nursing.
Good luck!

It sounds like she's looking for comfort, so you may want to help her find another way to soothe herself. Maybe a stuffed animal or a favorite book and some cuddle time??

I don't think it's any different (in theory) from a child looking for a binky when she's upset. Just keep in mind that if she's looking for comfort and you're not around she needs a "back up plan"!

This sounds normal to me for a one year old.

Have you started to introduce another source of fluids into the diet (typically whole milk)?

I found with my kids that as we introduced the cow's milk and gradually increased it to at least three cups per day (i.e. once with each meal) plus snack times, they showed less interest in BFing and by about 15 to 16 months were content with just the milk and had stopped nursing. I would consider this "self-weaning".

One thing I would do is focus on getting her to use the cup. Do not bother with a bottle. I found that as they self-weaned, we also finally dropped the nursing to fall asleep routine and transitioned into more of a "Big Girl" nighttime routine (i.e. brushing teeth, a story and prayers).

Good luck.
~C.